That's the Plan

Every few months, I realize that I'm once again lost.  That somehow, I stopped looking at my maps, stopped making my notes and started to feel overwhelmed again.  And I resolve that this time, I'm going to get it together. This time I'm going to follow through until it becomes habit.  This time, I will find a planner that works for me.

My first planner was a simple calendar book. I would start searching for the perfect calendar.  Something that would show the world my sense of whimsy, or maybe something that would show off how big of a fan of XYZ I was.  Once the calendar was purchased, I'd immediately bring it home and put all the important dates where they belonged.  Birthdays were happily written down, anniversaries notated, upcoming appointments carefully marked with date and time.  And for the first two weeks, I followed it religiously, writing down new things coming up and making every appointment without trouble.  But soon I'd be missing writing something down for a day or two.  The days turned into weeks, the weeks into months.  And by the time the end of the year came around, I had a calendar kept up in January and then only sporadic notes from that point on.  But it didn't stop my enthusiasm for trying again the next year.

After awhile, I  realized that I also wanted to have something more than those dry dates to look back at.  Maybe, I figured, if I started putting little notes about things that happened that day I'd be more willing to write daily.  That would do the trick.  So I looked for a planner with plenty of room for each day for me to put down all my thoughts and plans.  So just like with the calendar, I found what I was looking for, kept up with it for a few weeks and then slowly stopped doing writing.  A few months later, I'd remember my desire to journal and pick it up again... for a few more weeks.  By the end of the year, I'd have several weeks with lots of information, followed by months of nothingness.

It started to see a pattern of wasting money on planners that would end up three quarters empty.  One June, I decided I needed something that wasn't dated so if I missed dates, there wouldn't be swaths of empty spaces I'd never be able use.  What I needed, I thought, was just a notebook.  I could set it up however I wanted, writing when I wanted to write and not feel guilty about wasting money when I didn't.  I had a lot of small notebooks and journals (I love office supplies) so I wasn't spending even more money.  And the journal writing part was perfect.  I managed to write regularly enough that I was able to completely fill one journal.  But I had the worst time figuring out a good way to keep track of important dates. For awhile I tried combining the paper journal with a digital planner but when I'd remember to write something in the paper journal I'd forget to put dates in the digital planner and vice-versa.  I needed a one stop shop.  That's when I found Bullet Journals.

Bullet Journals are all about customization.  I could keep track of habits I wanted to keep, important dates in yearly and monthly form, important checklists that I would help me stay on top of everything else along with the weekly/daily writing I wanted to do.  There were so many awesome layouts on the web.  And it would let me use some of my creativity to make my journal something I'd want to look back at.  In preparation, I purchased stencils and colored pens, washi tape and stickers.  It was getting close to the end of the year so I figured I'd start in January.  I spent the weeks leading up to the new year setting up the different checklists and habits I wanted to track.  I separated areas with washi tape, tried to find the perfect stencils for each page.  I loved setting it up.  When setting up the calendar portion of the book, I tried to learn from my previous mistakes and not set my weekly planner up too far in advance.  I was ready. My resolution was going to stick!

It didn't.  I soon found that trying to get the next week's spread in my journal took not just a lot of time, but a lot of room.  I needed my different colored pens, my stencils, my book.  I needed a quiet place to work so I didn't get distracted.  At the time, my biggest stretch of free time was the hour I spent waiting for my son to get out of school.  And I just didn't have the room to keep my planner stable in the car.  So I would miss a week here, another there.  Each week, it got harder and harder to keep up with.  Looking back now, I think I was trying to do too much at once.  So I went looking again.

One of my Bullet Journal Layouts

In March, my dad bought me an Elephant Planner.  It was completely undated.  Each month had room on the side to put notes.  Each week had space for each day along with weekly goals, successes and things I need to work on.  It had a little folder on the inside of the back cover to keep things I might need.  Best of all, it had three attached bookmarks so I could easily move between monthly, weekly and notes.  I was originally going to wait until I finished or failed my current journal, but I have a difficult time with having to wait.  So in mid-March, I decided I'd give it a try after all.  Maybe go back to two journals for awhile.
It's now been 7 months.  I stopped my older journal within a couple of weeks.  I set up the month a few days before the beginning of the new month.  I try to put all my plans for the week in on Saturday or Sunday.  I've missed a few weeks here and there but I don't have any open spaces since I just start the next week on the next page.  Sometimes, I'll pull out my colored pens and stencils and decorate the area a bit.  Sometimes I'll stencil in the weather.  Some weeks, I'll try to remember to put in the things I want to make a habit. Often, I'll plan what I want to clean each day and write it down so I can check it off later. Others, I'll just dump all my To Dos at the top of the week and try to get on top of it that way.  But it seems to be working.

My next resolution is going to be to look at it every day rather than just writing it down.